first light for trout?

[cbtrtbum]

Hi all,
my last few trout trips on the hardwater have been pretty slow.  Im wondering if it makes a significant difference fishing right at dawn, vs. later in the morning?  I trypically hit the ice around 10am or so and fish through the afternoon.  I might make it a point to be there setting up right at dawn and see if it makes a difference.  What have your experiences been?   Thanks, Chris

[Fish-On-VT]

My luck has been best in the wee hours of the morning... between 5 &10.

I typically get on the lake between 5 & 6 and I'm packing up by noon

~ Fish-on-VT

[tziegert14]

I may get a fish or two during first light. It seems to me that I get Bow bites in waves. First wave 8-10, wave 2 11:30 - 12:30 then back to a pick. I just like to get to my lake early and set everything while the lake is quite. I can't tell how much I hate someone with a gas auger by me or running kids. Yes, I'm proud to say I'm a gumpy old man! I'm certain noise plays a big part since most of my trout are in shallows. I recently had a mad dog bow bite where I could keep more than one rod/tip up in water just everything was going off. That was a good bite that doesn't happen all the time!

Icepants

[splakeshaker]

I usually set up as early as possible. The 5-6am thing. As far as noise goes....Some times for me silence is great and power augers shut em down. Other times, it'll be dead, and someone will set up close to me and start drilling and I get a hit or two and then die back down. Never know......depends on the day. With ice fishing...there are no rules to follow.

[eroknroll]

It is going to vary somewhat on the body of water.  One place we fish the best fishing is between 6-9 am then it dies, and we are leaving by ten thirty as most people show up.  But on another lake, we get there early and nothing happens until 10 am and it's steady most of the day.  As a rule of thumb I would say early morning and sunset are going tobe your best bet

[coboy]

From dawn to 11 am seems to be the best for me.

[alaskaruss1]

I seem to do my best trout fishing during the evening through dusk. 

[Litchfield Fisher]

most of our trout lakes up here seem to produce best from the time the sun first peeks over the horizon until 9:30 10:00 am and then we only pick up a few the rest of the day with an occasional good run right before dusk especially on browns

[slipperybob]

Most of my fishing is best from first light to the next following hours. 

[cbtrtbum]

thanks a lot for all of the replies everyone.  Im gonna do m best to drag my butt out a little earlier this weekend!  Cheers,Chris

[james]

For some reason,i found different lakes have different feeding times.
even though the lakes are only a few miles apart.
that's fishing for rainbows though, thats all i fish for.

[Merv]

I seem to have all my lucky catching lakers first light i go out at 7:00am first light is around 7:30 and i get most of my fish between 8:00 and 9:00 am and then they seem to slow down after that  but get runs around 10:00am and 2:00pm.

[Litchfield Fisher]

proved it again yesterday caught 5 trout between 6:30 and 9:30 and had 30 flags total, not another flag till 2:30 in the afternoon, then 3 trout more within 15 minutes of each other at 3:30

[paul23]

Have tipups in just b4 first light and best hours from then till 10ish. Sometimes a bit later but rarely.

[ByteN2it]

Check out this table for your area it can help give you an idea of when fish are most active-only problem is the fish don't read these. Brian

http://www.usprimetimes.com/stateselect.html

[dabluz]

Here in Quebec, where I fish, there are only brook trout.  Ice fishing starts at the end of April.  The best fishing by far is very early in the morning.  I am usually all set up just as the sun starts to rise.  I also start out in very shallow water.  I've caught large brook trout in less than 2 feet of water.  As the sun comes up, I slowly move to deeper water and sometimes I'm fishing in 40 feet of water by 10 a.m.  However, when the fishing gets slow, I do move around from one hole to another and sometimes those holes in very shallow water will produce.  We are alllowed to use only 1 line so if I don't get a bite in one hole, I quickly move to another.

[jiml]

I arrive at the lake an hour before sunrise.....drill the holes in 2 - 6 feet of water close to shore......go back to the truck and take a nap.  Come back at sun up and set my tip ups!  I have limited out before getting all my tips in the water!

[Ben,wyo]

first lights the best

[ptownrowdy]

It is possible to make educated generalizations on this topic and prob be in the ballpark.  I do find that almost every lake fishes a little bit differently and we do mark certain times as better on certain lakes.  Typically my day starts at 6 and if i stay till 2 it was a long day.  This year i have a permanent shack so im going to do some all day trips.